The Teacher from the Black Lagoon

511 days ago
	Well, some things look better on paper, and the project I did with my students last week was definately one of them. The mission was simple. To use a vegetable as an artistic brush and create artwork using onions, potatoes, etc. I guess the project would have been really cool had there only been a few kids and a few onions. But 36 onions was a bit much. Every class smelled horrible afterwards, with not only onion but inky onion smell. My second folly was one which I should have pre-empted. I told the kdis to bring cutting devices, and the class showed up with a huge range of box cutters and knives. I allowed the first class to use it, but after 4 kids got cuts and one left a trail of blood to the bathroom, I decided that never again will I allow these kids to use sharp blades. Surprisingly, not one kid complained about being cut. My biggest folly was that I told the kids to bring inkpads. Some brought what I had expected... little dinky inkpads used for stamping. But a large amount brought canisters filled with ink (one kids even brought an inkwell filled with Mont blanc ink, very expensive and I am sure his dad would miss it). This was messy to say the least, but it got ridiculous during the third class of the day. At the very start of the class a kid came to me with a dilemma. He had three big bottles of ink but no pad to put it on. So I took the bottle and went to fill up the spare pad that I had brought along. The problem came when I turned the ink over, as the cap had been loosened and all the ink came spilling out. It turned my whole arm green, the teachers desk, and the teacher chair. I continued the lesson, but had to duck out after a few minutes due to the drying mass of ink across my body. Upon returning to the class two more kids had spilled ink all over themselves and the floor. At one point I think about half the class was in the bathroom vigourously scrubbing away the ink stains. But the class did act really sweetly thereafter. One asked me if I will get in trouble and I said I hope not, and made a comment about getting fired. Anwyays, when I came back to the class to clean up about half the kids were scrubbing away fervently in an effort to get the class clean. They said it was because they were worried that I would get fired. It was really touching for them to do that for me. After a weekend my hand only shows residual signs of the green ink, and the class is pretty clean, except for the teachers chair. It now remains a large reminder of an activity that went very very wrong.